SuperGroup plans £125m flotation

Feb 16 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE stock market debut of streetwear fashion firm SuperGroup - whose designs have been worn by celebrities including David Beckham and Leonardo DiCaprio - is expected to realise hefty windfalls for founders and management.

SuperGroup – the firm behind the Superdry youth fashion label – plans to issue new shares worth £125m in a move that will reportedly value the firm at around £400m.

It is currently owned outright by management, led by founder Julian Dunkerton, 44, who has a 53.1% stake.

He built up the business from a market stall in Cheltenham more than 20 years ago into a chain now with 40 stores and 54 concessions in House of Fraser.

Brand and design director James Holder, who started the Bench clothing label, and wholesale and international head Theo Karpathios both own 19.8% each, with the remainder spread among fellow senior managers.

The group’s partial IPO sees it shrug off turbulent conditions that last week caused fellow fashion firm New Look to postpone its stock market listing.

SuperGroup said the fundraising will help management realise their investments, while also support ambitious expansion plans.

It reportedly wants to open 20 stores in the UK each year as part of an ultimate aim for up to 150 stores.

And as part of overseas growth, it will look to develop multilingual websites to build on an offering that already sells to 58 countries.

Underlying pre-tax profits in the year to the end of April 2009 were £7.9m and retail experts are understood to be pencilling in a surge to more than £25m in the current financial year, rising to £36m next year.

Founder and chief executive Mr Dunkerton said: “Today’s news that we are intending to offer a retail component to our listing is a way of rewarding our dedicated, hard working staff and enabling both our customers and other members of the public to share in the future success of the business.”

SuperGroup has developed out of the Cult Clothing shop that was set up by Mr Dunkerton following the success of his market stall.

STAFF WILL BENEFIT

NEARLY 900 staff at education software firm Promethean are set to benefit after the company confirmed flotation plans today.

The launch, which will value the firm at up to £500m, is likely to leave around 15% of the company in the hands of employees.

The final amounts granted depend on how the share scheme is structured, but staff ranging from those at its Blackburn HQ to factory workers in China are likely to gain from the windfall.

Chinese employees however are likely to receive around £600 in cash instead to avoid the difficulty of running share schemes for overseas employees.

Chairman Graham Howe and chief executive Jean-Yves Charlier – who have both invested heavily in the firm – will hold stakes worth millions.

But the launch also allows an exit for private equity firm Apax, which bought a 25% stake in the business five years ago.

Founder Tony Cann’s 50% stake in the business – valued at around £250m by the float – is likely to be reduced but he will remain the largest shareholder.

Promethean currently has around 24% of the global market share for interactive whiteboards.

Another company which announced plans to float yesterday was Leeds-based EMIS which employs almost 800 people and was set up in 1987 by two GPs who recognised the need to computerise patient records which were kept on paper at surgeries.